Alberta Challenges Move to Create National Securities Regulator

The provincial government of Alberta has announced that it will launch a court challenge to the Canadian federal government's move to create a national securities regulator. In a news release on December 18, 2009, the Alberta government stated that it would file suit in the Alberta Court of Appeal to challenge the constitutionality of comprehensive federal legislation regulating securities. Alberta will also intervene in support of a similar challenge by the Québec government in the Québec Court of Appeal.

According to the release, Alberta authorities will argue that the federal move to enact federal securities legislation and establish a single national securities regulator represents an unwarranted expansion of the federal trade and commerce constitutional power. Minister of Finance and Enterprise Iris Evans said that the interests of Albertans and the Alberta capital market are best served by the existing regulatory structure. An acknowledgment of federal authority in this area would have implications in other areas of financial regulation that have historically been provincial responsibility, Evans said.

Although noting that federal authorities have announced their intention to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to confirm the federal government's power to enact a comprehensive regulatory scheme, the Alberta government said that is moving forward now with its challenge because it may be many months before a federal action is initiated. Joining in the Québec suit will allow the two provinces to share resources and send a stronger message of opposition to the federal plans, the release stated.

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